Phil Arvia: Is there hope for Michael Vick?

Monday

Aug 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2007 at 7:10 AM

Muhsin Muhammad weighs in on Vick and the "subculture" he was a part of.

Phil Arvia

Differences at the very least sartorial, if not cultural, were plainly evident Saturday in Bernard Berrian, a young black man, and the slightly older white men who were talking with him in the Bears locker room at Soldier Field.

The reporters were almost uniformly in khakis and polo shirts, while Berrian sported a white porkpie hat - cocked precisely at the angle bisecting jaunty and bad ass - atop a white bandana. Over his black tank top were diamond-rimmed dog tags on a silver rope; in his ears what would have made nice diamond cufflinks.

And at the locker next to Berrian’s, Muhsin Muhammad seemed to be veering toward another example of the empathetic gulf between many of the men who play sports at the highest levels and those who interpret them for the masses.

“I think, in general, people have pretty good impressions of Michael Vick,” Muhammad responded to the next question, about people seeming to “like the guy.”

“I think people had good things to say about him, his character and how he conducted himself,” he continued. “Generally speaking, that was kind of the consensus.”

And then, the save.

“But, like I said, it’s a tragedy,” Muhammad said. “He’s got some personal things in his life that he’ll definitely have to clean up and work on. Hopefully, over the time that he spends away from football, he can do those things and then be accepted when he gets back.”

I didn’t think in the moment to debate the “hopefully” part of the answer. But, as the other reporter walked away, cultural differences the topic already on my mind, I wondered about Muhammad’s thoughts on dogfighting.

In part, I said to him, “I just don’t get it at all.”

“Well, I mean, it’s one of those things that, uh -- it is, I guess, a subculture that I was unaware of,” he said. “And I think a lot of people are unaware of.

“I don’t understand what the excitement is about it or the thrill is about it -- watching those kinds of things or participating. But obviously, it’s popular.”

Obviously? If that’s true, we have Vick to thank for making it so, and by extension for prompting people such as Muhammad to express dismay over the popularity of something so abhorrent.

Of course, the idea of thanking Vick for anything right now is repulsive. He is to enter a plea agreement today in a U.S. District Court in Virginia, stipulating, among other things, that 6-8 underachieving dogs were killed by various methods, including hanging and drowning, “as a result of the collective efforts of (Vick and two co-defendants).”

Still, what Vick is heading toward stands before him as much an opportunity as punishment. Perhaps, it is the NFL’s opportunity as well.

It could be that neither the man nor the league will accept the challenge.

Certainly, few would blame the NFL for making permanent its current indefinite ban of Vick. Its culture values commerce first, and much of the ticket-buying public is also the Milk-Bone buying public.

As for Vick, he seems at the moment less sorry for his actions than for getting caught. Perhaps he can be taught the difference, and perhaps he can then teach others.

Perhaps not. There are hair-splitting elements to his plea agreement that suggest Vick, whose reaction to the earliest reports about his involvement in dogfighting was to lie to the league office, is still shying away from full disclosure. Even his two signatures on the document -- each nothing more than a giant “M,” scribbled as he might give an autograph -- scream that Vick hasn’t yet grasped the seriousness of his crimes.

But shouldn’t we all hope the misguided soul that is Michael Vick finds another way? Isn’t there a bedrock belief system implicit in Muhammad’s hope that Vick clean up while he’s away and be accepted upon his return?

Of course there is.

That’s the culture we’re all part of. Subcultures be damned.

Phil Arvia can be reached at parvia@dailysouthtown.com
or (708) 633-5949. Read his blog at http://blogs.dailysouthtown.com/arvia

Market Place

Community Blogs

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
Brookline TAB ~ 254 Second Ave., Needham, Massachusetts 02494 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service